Top-ranked Fort Hill runs past East/World of Inquiry,
52-0

Oct. 20, 2024
by Kyle Bennett

CUMBERLAND — It’s not often a football game is over by the end of the first quarter. That was the case Saturday at Greenway.

Jabril Daniels did what Jabril Daniels does. Nick Willison did what Nick Willison does. Fort Hill did what Fort Hill does.

The Sentinels (5-2) had over 250 first-quarter yards and four touchdowns to boot, as top-ranked Fort Hill trounced East/World of Inquiry School, 52-0.

“I thought it was a very well-played game,” said Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire. “We came out with a lot of intensity and was able to fire on all cylinders and get some stops early and get some big plays early.”

Daniels set the tone and gave the Eagles (5-2) a sign of what was to come, darting 72 yards up the right sideline for a score on Fort Hill’s first play from scrimmage.

By the end of one, Daniels had 120 yards on five carries, three of which went for touchdowns, and the Sentinels held a 28-0 lead.

“He’s a phenomenal player,” Alkire said. “He’s had a great season so far, and this was the time of the year last year where he started to pick things up. So he’s just following in those same footsteps as he did last year. So hopefully he can keep that up.

“And it also helps, too, that we’ve got three other running backs that have done a much better job the last couple weeks, so teams can’t key on Jabril.”

The senior tailback had the Sentinels’ opening three scores before Jeremiah Babo hauled in a 40-yard touchdown pass from Nash Cassell with 23 ticks left in the first. It was Fort Hill’s lone pass attempt on the day.

“That was a polished, disciplined team,” East/WOIS co-head coach James Vann said of the Sentinels. “I could see why they’re 10-time state champions. It was a good experience for us, an eye opener for sure and a gauge to where we know we want to be.”

By the end of one, Fort Hill had 261 yards of offense while limiting the Eagles to 13. The Sentinels moved the sticks nine times without yielding a first down defensively.

“That’s really big,” Alkire said. “We were able to get a lot of pressure on the quarterback. We were able to stop the run. Those were two keys of the game. And getting them off the field quickly was big for us because they had lots of big play ability.”

Saturday was Fort Hill’s second shutout of the season, coming a week after yielding just three points in a 56-3 win over No. 3 Mountain Ridge.

“We struggled all week defensively,” Alkire noted. “Like we changed game plans a few different times. So the fact that we kept a zero on the board is a really big deal. And really kudos to the kids for just being as good as they are and focused as they are and flying to the football and making plays.”

Leading the defense was Willison, who entered the week tied for the area lead in tackles (82) and was the far-and-away leader in tackles for loss with 20.

“I think he leads the state in tackles,” Alkire said. “He doesn’t have that big body build, but he is a very strong, physical, fast player, hard-nosed player who comes off the ball quickly. And that’s kind of been the MO for us since John McKenney was here. He was one of those very quick linemen to be able to essentially beat the bigger lineman off the ball, and Nick’s really good at doing that.”

Like Daniels, Willison set the tone early defensively, delivering tackle-for-loss number 21 on the Eagles’ first play from scrimmage. They punted three plays later.

On the second play of the third quarter, Willison ran down East/WOIS quarterback Tyler Benjamin and delivered a crushing hit that forced a fumble that was recovered by Neek Taylor.

Just as he did in the first half, Daniels delivered a big run on the first play from scrimmage on Fort Hill’s first drive of the second half, darting 42 yards up the left side before being ran out of bounds at the Eagles’ 2. He rumbled in on the next play for his final carry of the day, finishing with 10 totes for 178 yards and four scores.

After a 28-point opening frame, the Sentinels tacked on 10 points in the second via a 20-yard run by Younger, point-after try by Bobby Brauer and a 29-yard field goal by Brauer as time expired.

Brauer finished 5 of 6 on PATs and had three touchbacks.

Chase Lamb capped off the scoring with a 38-yard run in the fourth.

Fort Hill finished with a 443-125 advantage in total offense and 17 first downs to East/WOIS’s six. The Sentinels faced third down only twice, going 1 for 2, while the Eagles were 2 of 9 and 0 for 2 on fourth down conversions.

“So pretty much you win, or you lose, you go home,” said East/WOIS co-head coach Steve Flagler. “Take a chance and learn from it, that’s the best thing we can do. There’s not many New York teams traveling out of state playing Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio schools, and we wanted to experience it.”

Meanwhile, Fort Hill is getting hot just at the right time, with an offensive line that is really beginning to click.

“I feel like we have a lot of guys that have stepped up in the last couple of weeks,” Alkire said of the O-line, “and some of those guys aren’t really even playing a whole lot yet. But they’re doing a good job. We have probably about a seven- or eight-man rotation during practice. And they’re all pushing each other and they’re staying positive and they’re getting better.”

Fort Hill travels to winless Smithsburg (0-7) on Friday before taking on No. 4 Allegany (3-4) at Homecoming on Nov. 2.

Alkire concluded, “I feel like we’re getting better at the right time.”